Once upon a time there was a little girl and a summer rain … This is the story of a very special book for children that was published by Albatros 43 years ago.

“It was the little girl, dressed for the rain.” A teaser from the Polish version of the book. See more illustrations.

A yellow raincoat, red wellington boots and playing tag with the rain. What a pleasure to read this book in hot summer days!

The Little Girl and the Rain from Milena Lukešová and Jan Kudláček tells a story about a girl who met the rain in the silent streets of a nameless town. Poetic bilderbuch full of raindrops became known by children all around the world.

I was thinking – let’s talk about the famous Czech fairy tale character Little Mole by Zdeněk Miler again. I’ve got a special reason for it. A super special lovely one.

The reason is my brother’s daughter. Yes, my lovely little Jedi princess Tara Leia (my brother is crazy about Star Wars by George Lucas) who was born only three weeks ago. A few hours after the Valentine’s Day!

I was honored to meet her last Saturday, and of course, I was absolutely eager to give her a book. So, I’ve decided to give her a Little Mole book, and two Little Mole finger-puppets because for children the Little Mole is as necessary as mother’s milk. (If you want, read about kids’ books and puppets here. If you don’t understand Czech, you can follow the pictures.)

Once upon a time there was a bald doctor who became a writer – one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. He wrote many good books about all sorts of good things. Still, just one his book was for children.

The story of a boy, Kuba Kubikula, and his bear cub Kubula, is set in “the times when the world was still young and people readily believed in fairy tales”. Kuba and his naughty bear wander through the winter countryside, doing odd jobs and earning their bread.

One night the bear gets naughty too much, so Kuba Kubikula tells him a scary story about the bugbear Barbucha that comes into life, scaring the little bear. They wander together with their new spooky friend, having lots of adventures, and one very funny snowball fight.

Vladislav Vančura’s only children’s book was published in 1931 (my edition is from 1967), and it was a real surprise to his readers. Fairy tale? By Vančura? Wow, that’s novelty! Anyway, the sweet story of Kubula and Kuba Kubikula with Vančura’s absolutely beautiful Czech language became very popular, and still it is one of the most favourite Czech books for children.

What about the illustrations? Are they familiar to you? They might be.

The book was illustrated by Zdeněk Miler, the greatest father of the Little Mole, the most famous fairy tale character in Czech Republic. I wrote about it last year. Yet must say, the first edition of Kubula and Kuba Kubikula (1931) was illustrated by Ondřej Sekora, another gorgeous Czech artist.

Finally, you might also know the animated version of Kubula and Kuba Kubikula that was created by Zdeněk Smetana in 1986. If you like, you can watch it here.

Now I really wonder, which version of Kubula and Kuba Kubikula you like the most? Have you ever read the story? Or have you ever heard about it?

In any case, wherever you are, have a beautiful winter time with Kuba Kubikula, Kubula and Barbucha – if only you’re not pretty scared of it!

I want to remember the first President of the Czech Republic with his (one and only) book for children: The Pizh’duks.

Dear children,

I don’t usually write for children, and that is why I don’t know if this tale of mine about the Pizh’duks is going to make sense to you, and if you are going to like it. If not, don’t know it away – wait and see how it is when you are older!

Yours,
Václav Havel

The book was published in 2003 in Meander in in dual language edition Czech-English.

“Václav Havel has long insisted that he cannot write a fairy tale for children,” claimed a Czech writer Ivan Klíma in 2003, “because, in the first place, he doesn’t know how to write something like this, and because, secondly, he has an awful time correctly pronouncing the letter ‘r’ – and fairytales are full of nothing but drrragons, wizarrrds, prrrincesses, dwarrrfs, fairrries, waterrr sprrrites, trrrolls, rrrarrrees and otherrr similarrr types of monsterrrs.”

But as you can see, Václav Havel did it.

“He did end up writing a fairytale, and he worked it all out wonderfully: he came up with a new fairytale monster that hasn’t got a single ‘r’ in its name,” said Klíma.

The Pizh’duks by Václav Havel, illustrations by Jiří Sopko. Photo by Meander (?)

What is the fairytale about?

Well, it’s quite different than other fairytales you know. The Pizh’duk is a strange creature who does things in a strange ways. You might call him a politician but not a really good one.

The fairytale has five parts. They are called: The Pizh’duks, The Conspiracy, The Telephone, The Outdoorsman and The Meeting.

Václav Havel wrote the fairytale in 1975, when communists ruled in this country, and many writers were not allowed to publish their books. Václav Havel was one of them, and so you can read about it between lines. The Pizh’duks is Havel’s criticism of self-seeking people, usually politicians; mainly; it’s the criticism of communism, but sensitively written – for children, to let them know how absurd the communism was.

Living underground, Little Mole digs up a lot of treasure. If only he had something to help carry it all – trousers with pockets would work perfectly. But where can he find them? His search seems hopeless, until he gets a little help from his friends. If they all work together, Little Mole just might get the trousers he needs. Because with friends anything is possible.

Little Mole (Krtek or Krteček in Czech) is the greatest and most famous fairy tale character in Czech Republic. Everyone knows it perfectly. It was created by amazing Czech artist, illustrator and director Zdeněk Miler.

How Little Mole Got His Trousers is the best known fairy tale about Little Mole from 1957. First it was a short animated TV story for children, then the story was so favourite that it had to be published as a book. It was published in English, too, and you can purchase it here, if you like.

Little Mole doesn’t even speak on TV. That’s why it’s so famous around the world, you know, every child understands it perfectly. They can hear just its laughing, crying or different kinds of interjections as ugh! yay! oh! yahoo! :) All sounds were made by Miler’s little daughters. Are you interested in? Watch this video where Little Mole is a gardener.

“Sometimes I’d like to spank him, but anyway, we like each other very much,” claimed Zdeněk Miler years ago. He created more than 50 animated stories about Little Mole. Now you might ask: “Why did he choose this kind of animal?” It’s easy. It was one of those that was not created by Walt Disney!

Oh, and this is very important! Little Mole looked into space not only in the story Little Mole and the Space Ship (1965), but also forty-five years later aboard a real shuttle. Astronaut Andrew Feustel chose Little Mole as the mascot for the last flight of the shuttle Endeavour. It was his wife’s idea. Indira is a native Czech who read Little Mole stories to their children before bedtime.